AutoX practice at El Toro July 7. Hasn't opened registration yet. Sounds
like a great place to test out the Dacuda. I'll do the practice if you go.
Jay W
jdharmon@earthlink.net wrote:
> Ok. I sort of hinted at the project a while back. Now we can talk
> about it. The DACUDA has been resurrected. The truck has been
> converted to a 5 speed beefed up NV3500, 9.25" rear with 3.90 gears and
> MagHytec cover, Viper disc brakes all around (don't ask, I am not going
> to tell anyone how to do it!), Hurst short throw shifter, custom billet
> shifter ball. Now before you start going on about why change out from
> an auto trans, this is a road race and autocross truck, not a dragster.
> More fun this way anyhow.
>
> Problems we ran into... Headers - different part numbers for manual
> versus automatic. Also the location where the collector flange connects
> to the exhaust pipe before the cat is 10 inches more aft on the manual
> trans! Get out the grinder and sawzall! The main issue was we needed
> new bolts and such. The manual flywheel uses different bolts than the
> automatic flywheel. The pressure plate/clutch pack we got (yes, very
> beefy!!!) didn't have the pressure plate bolts included!! A lot of
> bolts that connect the trans to the engine were different between the
> two trans. Even some of the parts departments didn't know what we
> needed! Flywheel sensor different between the two trans. The pilot
> bearing hole in the crank was suppoed to be around 1.001" in diam. Try
> 0.984"!! We ran through a grinding bit with the Dremel on that one!!!
> Destroyed three pilot bearings before we got it right!!
>
> The trans tunnel is a lightweight metal shell with a lot of plastic
> undercoating on it. Cuts like KAKA! The 97 5.2L auto interior trans
> tunnel had two humps in it that are not there for the manual version.
> You need to pound them out to get the floor console to fit and then
> bolster up under the carpet on the sides of the tunnel to get the
> console to sit flush. The engine wiring harness had to be swapped for a
> manual one. What a pain. Then we find out that while everything else
> hooked up fine, the speed sensor connection to the trans had changed
> probably due to different manufacturers. Had to cut the old one off the
> original harness to make it work. The new Holley Performance plug wires
> already are melting after one month of use! The pedals were easy to
> swap out but we also had to put in a new steering column specifically
> for a manual. Can't use the automatic steering column and just
> disconnect stuff.
>
> After all of this work, we are now sidelined. Why? Apparently the
> drive shaft we ordered had to have the metal mined somewhere, smelted,
> forged and then sent to the main warehouse at DC. It is somewhere on
> the road!!! Hopefully it will be in thursday and then we can finish
> this beast! You can expect to see the entire project and read about it
> in an upcoming issue of Sport Truck Mag. There were a lot of little
> stuff that we found out about during the course of this project!!!!
>
> Sure will be nice to drive the darn truck again this weekend!!!
>
> TTYL
>
> Jim
> DACUDA II
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:01:55 EDT